Advantages of British Virgin Islands Business Company
The island is British Overseas Territory, which guarantees excellent political stability. BVI also maintains a low international profile and a clean reputation, not like many offshore tax haven countries.
The official currency is USD – that means, there can be no currency controls and no artificial manipulation of money supply by the local authorities.
The territory has an independent law system based on English Common Law. Laws and regulations are routinely developed in consultation with the private sector. Offshore financial services sector contributes main part to the island’s GDP. Their primary interest is to maintain and develop the country’s status as a competitive offshore financial centre.
Structure of British Virgin Islands Business Company
A BVI Business Company is exempt from the BVI income tax, all dividends, interest, rents, royalties, compensations and other amounts paid by a company, and all capital gains realised with respect to any shares, debt obligations or other securities of the company.
No estate, inheritance, succession or gift tax is payable with respect to any shares, debt obligations or other securities of a BVI BC. Transfers of property,assests, shares, securities ar exempt from the stamp duty, excpet land-ownership transactions in the BVI.
A British Virgin Islands Business Company has separate legal personality and the same powers as a natural person.
Details of the beneficial owners, shareholders and directors are not in any public records and registers! All these information is confidentally kept at the office of the registered ganet.
The only documents held on public record are the Memorandum and Articles of Association, but that doesn’t have to contain the name of the actual shareholders, directors or the beneficial owners.
Optionally- if the owners of the company so wish, the Register of Directors and/or the Register of Members may be filed with the Registrar of Companies.
The company has to have a minimum of only one owner, one shareholder, and one director. All can be the same person.
Corporations or individuals of any nationality can be shareholders of a BVI company. There are no requirements of annual meetings.
In a company where one person is the sole shareholder/ director may specifically appoint a reserve director to act in his place in the event of his death.
In case of a foreign authority seizes the shares of the company, the director/shareholder may apply to the BVI court for an order that the Company disregard the seizure and continue to treat the person from whom the shares were seized as continuing to hold the shares.
A BVI company doesn’t have to prepare financial accounts. However records of the company’s transactions must be kept and enable the financial position of the Company to be determined with reasonable accuracy. These records can be kept anywhere determined by the owners of the company. There is no requirements to make public any commercial or financial records of the Company.
Shares of a BVI Business Company may be issued in bearer form. However the bearer shares may not be issued to their actual owner but may only be kept in custody of a licensed custodian in the BVI, or with such custodian outside BVI, together with a written indication as to the actual identity and address of the owner of such shares. The schedule of Government fees for BVI Business Companies contains a clear negative incentive against utilising bearer shares in the structuring of the Business Companies, as the Government fees for such companies will be considerably higher.
A BVI Business Company may be incorporated as a company limited by shares, a company limited by guarantee , an unlimited company, a segregated portfolio company and a restricted purpose company.
A BVI Business Company doesn’t have to specifiy the company’s scopes of activities in the foundation documents of the Company.